High Court Sends Myriad Gene Patent Row Back To Fed. Circ.

Law360, New York (March 26, 2012, 2:00 PM EDT) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Federal Circuit to take another look at its finding that breast cancer genes isolated by Myriad Genetics Inc. are patentable, in light of the high court's Mayo v. Prometheus decision that methods covering laws of nature alone are unpatentable.

The high court vacated and remanded the Federal Circuit's 2-1 ruling from July that the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes isolated by Myriad fall within the realm of human-made inventions because they are "markedly different" from molecules that exist in...